Geroge Packer identifies four national narratives in his recent piece at The Atlantic titled “How America is Fractured Into Four Parts.” I am sure I will be talking more about this piece in the future. “Free America” draws on “libertarian...
George Packer
Did anyone believe that this election would somehow unite the country?
I am a bit surprised that so many pundits are writing articles about how this election will do little to bring the country together. Ross Douthat: “2020 Will Not Be Decisive“ Ron Brownstein: “A Cold War Between Red and Blue...
America is broken and Jared Kushner is partly to blame
Last night I finally got around to reading George Packer‘s piece in the June 2020 issue of The Atlantic. It is titled “We Are Living in a Failed State.” It is hard to argue with anything Packer says in this piece. The...
*Harper’s Magazine* publishes “A Letter on Justice and Open Debate”
This letter will appear in the October 2020 issue of Harper’s Magazine. Signers include Anne Applebaum, Margaret Atwood, David Blight, David Brooks, Noam Chomsky, Gerald Early, David Frum, Francis Fukuyama, Todd Gitlin, Anthony Grafton, David Greenberg, Jonathan Haidt, Michael...
George Packer on America as a “Failed State”
Sadly, nearly of what George Packer says in his recent piece at The Atlantic is correct. Here is a taste of “We Are Living in a Failed State“: When the virus came here, it found a country with serious underlying conditions, and...
“When Trump demanded to know whom he’d voted for in 2016, McCabe was so shocked…”
I finally got around to reading George Packer’s piece in The Atlantic on Trump’s attack on American institutions. It is chilling. It reveals a mafia-style presidency. It sheds new light on the fact that Trump demands loyalty to him, not to...
Former Democratic Presidential Candidate Michael Bennet Reads Books
I really enjoyed this New York Review of Books interview with Colorado Senator Michael Bennet. Susannah Jacob writes about Bennet: “Before he ran, he read history and journalism for “six or eight months” to moor himself by gaining a long view...
George Packer on the Courage and Loneliness of Writing
The Atlantic is running a version of George Packer‘s Hitchens Prize acceptance speech. The Hitchens Prize is awarded annually by the Dennis & Victoria Ross Foundation to an author or a journalist whose work, in the spirit of the late...
The Difference Between Sanders and Trump
Political commentators these days are trying to explain the populist appeal of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. Even Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, in his new manifestation as a cultural commentator, is getting into the act. Others question whether we can really use...